Absolute beginner questions

Hello all. I'm new to these forums, and new to 3D printing. I scanned through the forums, and didn't see any immediately obvious threads with my general questions, so I apologize if this is "identical n00b thread #532."

Background: Architectural draftsman, 3 yrs experience, mostly AutoCAD. Occasional mechanical projects. 2D and 3D.
Interests: Rapid prototyping for the occasional mechanical projects, and general goofing around to see what a rapid prototyper can do.
Future projects: I'd like to try my hand at fabricating custom gaming terrain for Warhammer 40K, Flames of War, &c.
Questions: 1) How much detail can be designed into the model? 2) Does the stratification of material have any physical texture, and if so, to what degree? 3) what are the typical costs and time for manufacturing a reprap? 4) what are the costs for the plastics used for manufacturing items?

As a 40K player myself, I think I can answer this A great deal of detail can be added to the model, but there will be stratification. The amount depends on your layer height. A layer height of 0.3 mm will show fairly obvious layers, while 0.10 mm or so will be harder to discern. If you're planning to make contoured hills and other natural features, you could print at a lower resolution and just cover the print in a thin layer of spackle or green stuff to smooth it out. If you're interested in making mechanical stuff, a lower layer height will be better, as well as a thick basecoat to fill in some of the crevasses between layers. Go ahead and forget about making figures, though. At least, as long as you'd want them to look good The resolution just isn't there yet.

There are some great examples of excellent prints on the Thingiverse page for the Yoda bust, such as this one:

[www.thingiverse.com]

this website may be of help, here you can find some samples of things people make with reprap's and makerbots [www.thingiverse.com]
The plastic i believe runs for around 15 dollars per lb. which is a decent amount of plastic


Morist

Hmmm. And what programs or file types are best? AutoCAD can save as a 3DS Max file if necessary, or I could learn Google Sketchup better, or is there a universal (preferably free) interface program for the RepRap?

---

"The kind of man who demands that government enforce his ideas is always the kind of man whose ideas are idiotic." ~ H.L. Mencken

A lot of developers favor OpenSCAD for 3D CAD and export in STL since almost all 3D printer software use this as input. I think some people use Sketchup. Just about any CAD sw that can output STL should work. The most popular and the best way to print STL files is to use Skeinforge to generate g-codes which are sent to the printer using either Printrun or Reprapper.

Note that you can still buy 5 lbs spools of ABS feed for $40. Note that at this time, you can only print once color at a time unless you slice different colored filaments together or use multiple extruders.

brnrd Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Note that you can still buy 5 lbs spools of ABS
> feed for $40. Note that at this time, you can only
> print once color at a time unless you slice
> different colored filaments together or use
> multiple extruders.


5 lbs for $40; where? That sounds awesome!

Hi,

Which Filament is better to use ABS or PLA ??? and for what ?
What are their properties etc ?

Thanks Spenc

ABS is more heat resistant, but PLA is easier to print and bonds better to the bed - read through the forum, there is a ton of regading infos ...

---

Viktor
--------
Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

Pointedstick Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> brnrd Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Note that you can still buy 5 lbs spools of ABS
> > feed for $40. Note that at this time, you can
> only
> > print once color at a time unless you slice
> > different colored filaments together or use
> > multiple extruders.
>
>
> 5 lbs for $40; where? That sounds awesome!

I bought it from New Image Plastic. If you buy 10 lbs, then you can get it in a spool. Less than that, they come as a coil. Village plastics has similar prices when I priced them a few months ago.

Is there anyone in the NW US who could help me build one of these? And what is the usual cost if I need to order parts and build from scratch?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/25/2011 02:46PM by Tothe.

Hi Tothe,
Welcome to the forum. There's good info on RepRap price points here (by Neil Underwood): [blog.reprap.org] (Aug 24th 2011 post).

I posted a recent question about PLA vs ABS here: [forums.reprap.org] and got excellent responses from the many helpful people here on the forum.

Best of luck.
NumberSix

---

[numbersixreprap.blogspot.com]